​Little Action From Lieberman as Israel’sNew Defense Minister - Grand promisesto be tough, but so far haven't seen it

JERUSALEM — Israel has been challenged by land, sea and air in recent weeks, as security officials have braced for a wave of violence around the Jewish High Holy Days and the anniversary of the outbreak of Islamic terrorists aka Palestinians:

stabbings

shootings

automobile attacks

A deadly drive-by shooting in Jerusalem, a spate of stabbings in the West Bank, rockets fired from Gaza into the border city of Sderot,Syrian missiles fired at Israeli warplanes, and a challenge to Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza, by a dozen women on a yacht, have all provided a test of how Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s hard-line defense minister, would respond. As for what sticks he would use beyond the usual toolbox of demolishing houses, canceling work permits and stripping certain Palestinian officials of their V.I.P. passes, Mr. Lieberman has been vague.

​Before his May appointment in a political deal to bolster Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative coalition, Mr. Lieberman criticized what he called the government’s soft handling of security. Now, five months after his tough talk, Israeli military officials, analysts and Palestinian experts say he has done little to change Israeli policies significantly. “He speaks of collective punishment,” Amos Harel, a military affairs analyst for the newspaper Haaretz, said of Mr. Lieberman’s threats to penalize the families and communities in the occupied West Bank from which attackers hail. “But if there is a closure of a village, it is not complete. He turned up the volume a bit, but not dramatically.”www.nytimes.com/2016/10/12/world/middleeast/israel-defense-minister-avigdor-lieberman.html?_r=0